After signing the agreement, Melton broke down in tears as she hugged a 10-year-old protester.

"You just don't take a kid away from their parents," she said. "(My brother) certainly didn't die in Vietnam so somebody could take kids away from their parents."

Womack, the first commissioner to sign, was the most vocal proponent of scrapping the contract. He said it degrades trust in the work county law enforcement is doing.

"Where is (the sheriff's office's) original mission statement that we will collaborate with an organization that's kidnapping children, that's going against human rights, that's going against the Geneva Convention," Womack said. "Where is that in the original mission statement and why aren't they held to the same level of scrutiny that we did with the land bank, because there's no money for us to get out of agreeing that these babies being ripped out is wrong."

The persistence of the protesters, who have vowed to continue coming to each full board meeting until the contract is pulled, appears to have persuaded county elected officials to, at very least, hold formal discussions over the ICE contract.

The call for more discussions came from commissioners Melton, Womack, Stan Stek, David Bulkowski and Matt Kallman. There are 19 county commissioners.

Though commissioners lack the direct control to end the contract, they can pressure Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma to do so. Stelma signed the contract with ICE in 2012, and he renewed it in 2017.

Broadly, the contract formalizes the amount of payment the county receives for each day an inmate flagged for ICE detention is held. It allows ICE detainments for up to three days, rather than the standard two.

Protesters blindsided commissioners last month when about 100 of them commandeered board proceedings after interrupting a person's public comment on another issue.

When that meeting was called back to order, some commissioners discussed forming a committee to assess the jail contract or holding talks with Movimiento Cosecha GR leaders.

No such committee was formed, and the topic was not on Thursday's agenda. In a statement Wednesday, County Administrator Wayman Britt said representatives from his office have invited Movimiento Cosecha GR leaders to meet and talk over concerns.

"What I'm confident about is we are going to keep coming back to end the contract," Lowe said.

Protesters argue the contract incentivizes the racial profiling of Latinos and profits from their detention. When ICE receives the prints of a person lodged in jail, they might request a detainment request on a suspected illegal immigrant. Deputies do not arrest people on illegal immigration charges, according to county administration.

In 2017, the Kent County Sheriff's Office kept 185 people jailed at the request of ICE, resulting in a revenue of $17,935, according to county spokesperson Lisa LaPlante. The jail's budget that year was $36 million.

The detainment requests are not mandatory, and numerous jails across the states have been denying them in recent years. However, LaPlante said jails must oblige them.

At least 20 people addressed the board Thursday during the public comment portion. The topics ranged from white privilege, abuses by ICE officers and the trauma and fear suffered by children with undocumented immigrant parents.